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Venice Beach

Venice Beach, California

Here I was, sitting with my husband waiting for our pasta dinners at an Italian sidewalk cafe just a few blocks from the Venice Beach Fishing Pier when he exclaimed “Hey, check this out. Here come some mounted police.” Sure enough, clip-clopping down the center of W. Washington Boulevard were two policemen on horseback. “Who would have thought in Venice Beach,” I said, and turned back to the table. “Here come a few more,” he said. And as we watched, all five walked their horses up to the Cold Stone Creamery, dismounted, and leaving one officer holding the reins to all five, four walked into the ice cream shop. “I have to get this!” I exclaimed. “Go, go, go,” he said.

So I grabbed my camera, ran across the street, and began shooting. I wasn’t the only one. People stopped with their cellphones to take photos of the police and their horses. More interested in getting the shot that included the storefront, I shot from the “rear view,” making sure I didn’t hold up any traffic.

In today’s heated social climate, I spoke to the officers afterwards and thanked them for their service. They were so very grateful, confessing they didn’t hear that often. This is not meant as any kind of political commentary; I simply wanted to acknowledge them.

Finished shooting, I went back to the table and my husband, who told me that, according to our waiter, these officers used to go to the Starbucks a few doors down; deciding instead that smoothies were healthier, they made Cold Stone their new coffee break stop. Caloriewise, I’m not so sure of their reasoning unless they were loading up on java chip frappuccinos, but hey, this is after all, Los Angeles and somehow the idea of smoothie-drinking police officers just seemed to fit. As for the horses? Yeah, I’m still surprised by that. Perhaps I should have titled this post “Only in L.A.”

Tourists get a nice surprise hello from a local at the Venice Beach Skatepark. Despite being scared a couple managed to get their cell phones up for a “high quality” pic, at least I didn’t see an iPad photographer.